* Fox writes with superb understanding and tenderness. I haven't been so dazzled by a YA in ages. She explores the hard and beautiful places loss can take us, and honors those who hold us tightly when the current wants to tug us out to sea. Or maybe-maybe maybe maybe-there's a third way Biz just can't see yet.ĭebut author Helena Fox tells a story about love and grief, about inter-generational mental illness, and how living with it is both a bridge to someone loved and lost and, also, a chasm. It might be easier, better, sweeter to float all the way away? Or maybe stay a little longer, find her father, bring him back to her. Dad disappears and, with him, all comfort. And Biz knows how to float, right there on the surface-normal okay regular fine.īut after what happens on the beach-first in the ocean, and then in the sand-the tethers that hold Biz steady come undone.
But after what happens on the beach-first in the ocean, and then in the sand-the tethers that hold Biz steady come undone. And Biz knows how to float, right there on the surface-normal okay regular fine. And she doesn't tell anyone about her dad. How It Feels to Float by Helena Fox Hardcover See Other Available Editions. Not about her dark, runaway thoughts, not about kissing Grace or noticing Jasper, the new boy.
And she has her dad, who tells her about the little kid she was, and who shouldn't be here but is. In Helena Foxs lyrical meditation on mental illness, Elizabeth Biz is. She has her people, her posse, her mom and the twins. Click to buy or visit your local indie bookstore. But after what happens on the beach, the tethers that hold Biz steady come undone. Kathleen Glasgow, author ofĪ stunningly gorgeous and deeply hopeful portrayal of living with mental illness and grief, from an exceptional new voice.īiz knows how to float. Agent: Catherine Drayton, InkWell Management.A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best of the Year Through lyrical first-person narration, Fox empathically conveys the hereditary nature of Biz’s illness, its disorienting manifestations, and the limitations and power of love to heal. Perplexed about her experiences, until she reaches a crisis point. However, her ongoing hallucinations, panic attacks, and disassociations, in which she has no memory of incidents others report, leave her increasingly Biz drops out of school, begins clinical treatment, and makes unexpected new friends, including Jasper, a teen with challenges of his own. But a drunken beach party incident leads to her dramatic expulsion from the group and catapults her into suicidal depression. Biz has her posse of friends, including her best friend Grace, whom she once kissed, and who supports Biz as she begins to explore her sexual identity. Biz, 17, blames herself for her father’s death when she was seven (“I am why he was sad”), and she doesn’t tell anyone that he remains a visible, often comforting presence in her life. Set in Wollongong, Australia, Fox’s exquisite debut offers an intimate portrayal of a teenager navigating familial and social complexities while living with an undiagnosed mental illness.
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